My hideout place in this funny world...

Maybe-not-really-20-something-anymore from Norway who likes to scrapbook and take photos documentarystyle and dreams of photojournalism when not working as a photojournalist and that's pretty much what this blog is about. And I like it this way.

Y’know, after I saw Rondas tutorial on stamping & misting on canvas on hm, the CK blog I think it was, I realized that hey, that doesn’t look like it’s too hard…and it really isn’t…sometimes it just takes someone to show you that indeed it’s fun and easy and the next thing you know you’re doing it like, all the time!

And may I just say I adore adore adore the mini organiza roses?? I love the ones in olive that I have stashed here, and look forward to get my hands on more white ones so I can mist and paint and ink them in any color I want!

I’ve long wanted to make small minis with fragments of lyrics I love (actually I’ve done it once before I think). Well, either minis, or minicanvases. The lyrics in this mini is taken from Maria Menas “This too shall pass” (link goes to the YT-vid. Lovelovelove this song. Obvs). Psst. The yellow sun is actually the same mist used on the background. It’s just watered down & painted on white background. Pretty eh?

I found some old old Tattered Angels masks and used various Maya Mists to create my own canvas-backgrounds. I wish I painted the whole wooden bird here, and not just partial by the way. Ahwell.

These kraft owls from Maya Road. LOVES! (oh yeah…pretty much all the stuff seen here are from Maya Road..made this mini for their CHA-W booth)

And look at that cute lil bunny! :D

Really like the wooden birds. Especially when you can paint it white (or just whitewash with watered out white paint) then add mists as if you were painting.

Psst. Speaking of Maya Road, there’s a virtual warehouse sale atm. Purchase boxes w/more than 128$ for 42.95$ only – with shipping at 3$ for US residents (Like 20$ for Canadians and 35$ for internationals). Sounds silly, eh? :) Check out this link for more information.

Y’know Craft Origine? They’ve got a whole new bunch of stamps out…sure, it’s in French, and I don’t speak one word French, but now they got wood mount stamps so I’ve added cheat labels to them translating what it says. Makes it all easier.. I just hope the translation’s somewhat correct, haha. I mean – everything looks (and sounds) so nice and posh in French for someone who doesn’t speak the language, so it’s not really a problem just stamping them here and there (imo it just makes me sound smart and all…to others who doesn’t speak the language either, that is)…just be nice it’s actually somewhat in theme w/what I’m creating for those who speak it. Sort of.

This one however – is totally in theme w/the card. It’s a CD-card so this stamp fits perfectly in (CD w/family pictures = modern family album =) ). And look at that white embossed clock stamp. It’s from Prima.

All the other stuff created on this card is actually from Prima. Plus adhesive used is from Glue Arts.

Just wanted to add some quick and nice touches to the card. like the “double folding” holding the cd in place inside the cd.

Tbh I didn’t really like this flower, not the butterfly on the front (they come in pairs)….but after using these two on this card I think I actually like them more than I did before I used them. The ribbon is from..hm…fairly sure it’s Maya Road..?

And oy! Seen this:

An art-zine. Created by various scrapbookers and artists using Prima (ofcourse).

The Yuki collection from Prima is one of my fave collections from this CHA-W. So cute, so whimsical…here’s an envelope I created for CHA-W, using both papers and stamps from that collection. I totally adore the stamps…so cute…so versatile…so …great! Additionally I used felt flowers & bow (love the felt stuff!) as well as some of the Ruby Violet embellishments.

Sweet, eh?

For the back closure I used the wood heart from hm, I think it was the en francais-collection.

Happy mail, indeed? :)

Been playing some with my new baby – the Lensbaby. Fun! (I have the regular composer one..been eyeing a lensbaby for quite some years now, and couldn’t resist when an offer hit my email the other day…I really oughta drop receiving these newsletters, I’m supposed to save my money for a new body!!)

Used the f/4 disc for these images… working with manual focus is sort of fun – if you’re into S&M….still..practice, practice, practice, hope for a bit of luck, eh? (and that the diopterthingie is correctly adjusted..I’m not quiiite sure mine is, hmmm….then again, I do need stronger contactlenses methinks)

Sure, you could just photoshop & get this kind of effect more…eh..effectively done…more precise……but where’s the fun in that…knowing you’re like, cheating? *grin*

Oy. You know the hype w/the photo-a-day-challenges? Well, I figured I’d make my own (or well, this one is for a young relative of mine), mixing up some of the prompts I’ve seen floating around the web for this journal premade outta scraps (mostly Pink Paislee & Hambly Screenprints), embellishments from Sassafras, Prima, Craft Origine and Maya Road and least but not last; Vintage Mix & Match numbers from Elle’s Studio :) Oh, and bakers twine from The Twinery (there’s a discount over there atm – 15% off if you use ILOVETWINE this week. I’m not affiliated, just love their twine & plan to order some once I get this months pay..somehow the money keeps..like…disappearing :p) Oh, and if you hurry over to Glue Arts right now you can enter their giveaways :) Here’s my post with them, this week’s theme is children & teen craft ideas :)

Nevertheless. Think & whimsical & nifty. I hope.

Here’s the list of the challenged issued, in Norwegian. Found an old Rhonna Farrer digiswirlthingie to prettify the list.

First - gather various scraps which'll match somewhat.

Doesn't matter that they won't be the same size - it's just cool.

Fold them together w/a bonefolder - you don't even need to make sure they are folded in the middle - one page can just as well be longer than the other. Use the border punch or the corner punch on some of the pages.

Carefully sew in the middle of the pages (or punch holes & thread some twine to hold the pages together).

Some of the Elle’s Studio number-tags were fairly large, so I just added adhesive to the corner edges so that my niece will be able to lift the tags some to tuck her images in behind the number-tags. For some of the smaller number tags I just used the extreme adhesive squares - either large or small ones depending on the size of the tags.

Oh, and the closing thingie: the twine wrapping around the book a couple of times? Saw this idea somewhere in the blogosphere, I’m so sucky at remembering from where. Just recall I thought that was such a simple yet cool idea and that I needed to try it out sometime. Well, from what I can tell it looks to be working swell!

Love the number-tags from Elle’s!

There ya go.

Now, I have a buncha projects which I need to get started with. If only the kiddo wasn’t so into Doctor Who these days so I had some more time to play w/paper in the evenings! (Oh, who am I kidding. LOVE Doctor Who, which reminds me of my childhood and early mornings with Sky Channel and Pat Sharp and, as far as I have gathered, the fifth Doctor, and LOVE that the kids loves him too! :D)

At the Prima-blog I have a tutorial going on. Here’s the directlink if you’d like to know how this tin was created/built up.
The two smaller flowers are from the Londonerry….I love the flowers and accessories from this line, but have never used any of the papers methinks. Just not my style. The colors used etc though – loves. I like to add crackle paint to the flowers etc too when I am using it otherplaces..
Like on this wood clock here. Wood + crackle paint = loves.
I’ve had this little plane for like, four or five years now. Finally I got to put it to use!
Inside the tin’s a little card. The papers used here are from the printer-collection. I love how that + the new Almanac-collection are perfectly matchy matchy.

Another tin, another recipient. This time w/the fun doodle-deux-collection.
See. Perfect size for giftcards!
I also did the Prima PPP for this month:

Fun colors! Here’s the link to the March PPP: there’s a giveaway as usual plus info on how to join the challenge! :)
Spring-ish & inspiring, isn’t? :)
I love the days off work (work 1 weekend, get Thurs/Fri the following week off). I usually pickup the kids at school & we’ll walk home together (today the oldest one had an extra lesson at school though). Today the weather was great, so I decided to bring my camera along. I know she’s not exactly in focus in the image above, but I love her expression&pose still.
She is changing so fast! She’s losing the cute baby/toddlerface, and a new, more grown-up one is trying to break forth.
When we were almost at home we spotted this little man – the kids’ cousin. He had been following us all the way from school and started describing how he spied on us and went to great heights to hide himself from us (“once the bush I hid inside had sharp thorns!”). Cutiepie!
So he followed us home….willingly posing for my camera…love such kids! ;)

Had to play w/the Prima BAP for March. Turned the sketch below into the layout above, w/a series of photos of my daughter w/her cousin. She totally adores him. I totally adore them.

Here’s the sketch – do join! MOre inspiration from the other girls can be found here.

Look. I stamp more and more. The strip of tickets and the bird & branch are both stamps.

And I love love love the stamps from the Yuki-collection (there’s three different ones I think, I lucked out with the one I have!).

I also used some PanPastel to color the stamps. Interesting stuff – pastels in storage jars. Need to explore more, never been into coloring of stuff nor painting, and this is basically…paint in jars...